Belief Overshadowed (20:1–2)

Belief Overshadowed (20:1–2)

Mary Magdalene and some other women decided to go to the tomb early on the first day of the week to demonstrate their love for Christ by completing the preparations for the burial. Circumstances had hurriedly prepared His body for Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, and the women wished to complete the work. Their great worry was, how do we get into the tomb? Perhaps the Roman soldiers will pity them and give them some help.

What they didn't know was that an earthquake had taken place and the stone had been rolled back by an angel! It seems that it was Mary Magdalene who was the first of the women to go to the tomb. When she saw the stone rolled away from the door of the tomb, she thought that somebody had broken into the tomb and stolen the body of her Lord. We can criticize Mary for jumping to conclusions, but given the circumstances it is hard to see how she could have come to any other conclusion. It was dark, she was alone, and, like the other followers of Jesus, she did not believe He would come back from the dead.

She ran and told the news to Peter and John, who must have been living together at a house known to the other believers. Perhaps it was in the Upper Room where they had gathered with Jesus. Mary’s use of the pronoun “we” is particularly striking, for it included the other women who at that moment were discovering that Jesus was alive (see Mark 16:1-8; Luke 24:1-8)! The women left the tomb to tell the other disciples the message of the angels.

The first witnesses of the resurrection of Christ were believing women. The testimony of women was not highly regarded among the Jews of that day. "It is better," said the rabbis, "that the words of the law be burned than be delivered to a woman." But these Christian women had a message greater than the law, for they knew their Savior was alive.
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Mary's faith hadn't been snuffed out, just eclipsed. The light was still there, but it was obscured. Peter and John were in the same spiritual condition, but soon all three of them would emerge from the shadows into the light.